Pak has bowed to India: J&K rebels

14 February 2009The Hindustan TimesArun Joshi

Jammu: The Pakistani government admission of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) role in the November 26 Mumbai attacks has left Kashmiri militant outfits fuming. They feel that they have been virtually left in the lurch by Pakistan. Within hours of Pakistan admission on Thursday that LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi trained and handled the terrorists, the militant outfits, including LeT, came out with angry reactions. LeT spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi was quoted by the media as saying Pakistan had surrendered before India and the US. He said Pakistan surrendered to the Indian designs of portraying the struggle of Kashmir independence as a terrorist campaign. The United Jehad Council (UJC), a conglomerate of 14 outfits based in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, also expressed anguish. The UJC spokesman, Syed Sadaqat Hussain, linked the lodging of an FIR against Lakhvi to the US envoy Richard Holbrooke's visit to Pakistan. But Kashmir watchers believe that Pakistan reaction to the Indian dossier will ultimately ease tensions between the two nuclear-powered nations in South Asia. It has also sent a message to the militants that in future too, Delhi and Islamabad may cooperate on issues of common interest. That both the countries have identified Lakhvi as the mastermind has disturbed the militants, said Tahir Mohi-ud-Din, a political observer and editor of the Urdu newspaper, Chattan. It for the first time that Pakistan has spoken of the militant outfits and their leaders in terms of terrorism and terrorists and proceeded to act against them.